Wells-next-the-Sea is a town as well as port on the North Norfolk coastline of England. The civil parish has an area of 16.31 km2 (6.30 sq mi) and in 2001 had a population of 2,451, lowering to 2,165 at the 2011 Census. Wells is 15 miles (24 km) to the east of the hotel of Hunstanton, 20 miles (32 km) to the west of Cromer, and also 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Fakenham. The city of Norwich lies 32 miles (51 km) to the south-east. Nearby villages consist of Blakeney, Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe, Holkham and Walsingham. The North Sea is now a mile from the town; the primary channel which once roamed via marshes, foraged by lamb for hundreds of years, was constrained by earthworks to the west in 1859 when Holkham Estate redeemed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells with the structure of a mile-long bank. This improvement was claimed to have actually lowered the tidal search though the West Fleet which provided much of the water entered the channel to its north.Because the community has no river going through it, it relies upon the trends to scour the harbour. The issue of siltation had preoccupied the vendors of the town for centuries as well as occupied the focus of different engineers, leading ultimately to disputes which came to court in the 18th century. Sir John Coode, that had actually been knighted for his work with the conclusion of Portland harbour was recruited to address its siltation troubles in the 1880s. No attempted solution confirmed irreversible. The development of faster aquatic traffic whose wake washes at the banks of the marshes has actually broadened the network and also reduced tidal flow further. The town has actually been a seaport because prior to the fourteenth century when it supplied grain to London and ultimately to the miners of the north east in return for which Wells was supplied with coal. Up until the nineteenth century, it was easier to bring mass freights by sea than overland. Wells was also a fishing port: in 1337 it is recorded as having had thirteen angling watercrafts; next door Holkham had nine. Its mariners brought first herring and after that cod from Iceland in quantity in between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The law of the harbour in order to maintain its use was by Act of Parliament in 1663; and in 1769 Harbour Commissioners were assigned with powers over vessels going into as well as leaving (as they still have today). The Quay was significantly rebuilt in 1845 as part of attempts to boost the community. At the same time, Improvement Commissioners were designated with the job of making the town commodious and attractive to residents as well as the expanding tourist trade. As a tiny port, it constructed ships until the late 19th century; it never ever moved to building motor vessels or to steel hulls. The coming of the railway in 1857 lowered the harbour trade however it restored briefly after the 2nd World War for the import of fertilizer as well as pet feed. In 1982 there were 258 ship movements into the harbour.